CD-ROM Images for MAME

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Keith Palmer
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CD-ROM Images for MAME

Post by Keith Palmer »

I've followed this board quietly for some time, but have decided to register at last to ask a question. A recent look back at the Voyager CD-ROMs had me thinking about trying some of them out, but after a bit of difficulty getting one to run in SheepShaver and noticing comments about MAME's Macintosh emulation improving I thought I would try that other emulator. By following instructions linked here, I was able to get IIci emulation set up using a CD-ROM image, but when I've tried starting the emulator again asking it to use other CD-ROM images they don't load in the emulated Finder. Creating an image from an old disc using the Terminal instructions also provided here still didn't work. Has anyone else looked into how CD-ROM images have to be formatted for MAME to recognize them?
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: CD-ROM Images for MAME

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

Keith Palmer wrote: Wed Jun 23, 2021 12:50 amCreating an image from an old disc using the Terminal instructions also provided here still didn't work.
There may be several different instructions to be found here. Which one did you use?
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Re: CD-ROM Images for MAME

Post by Keith Palmer »

Ronald P. Regensburg wrote: Wed Jun 23, 2021 8:06 amThere may be several different instructions to be found here. Which one did you use?
I used the instructions from "Creating an .iso from a HFS CD-ROM in macOS 10.15 (Catalina)" and wound up with a disk image that loaded into Mini vMac, yet produced neither a Terminal error message or an icon on the desktop in MAME.
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: CD-ROM Images for MAME

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

I have no experience with MAME, so just a thought:
Maybe MAME does not like the .iso extension. Try renaming the file to have a .img extension. (Changing the extension is best done in Finder Info panel for the file. Renaming in the Finder may result in a hidden .iso extension.)
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adespoton
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Re: CD-ROM Images for MAME

Post by adespoton »

Ronald P. Regensburg wrote: Wed Jun 23, 2021 12:04 pm I have no experience with MAME, so just a thought:
Maybe MAME does not like the .iso extension. Try renaming the file to have a .img extension. (Changing the extension is best done in Finder Info panel for the file. Renaming in the Finder may result in a hidden .iso extension.)
For MAME, I'd recommend using "chdman createcd" to convert your images to chd format. I don't believe MAME understands most other image formats.

chdman is a command-line tool that should be in your MAME Tools folder.
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Re: CD-ROM Images for MAME

Post by Keith Palmer »

I tried using chdman on the CD-ROM disk image I'd just made and turned out a .chd file, but it still didn't appear after MAME started up. The really puzzling part of this, I suppose, is that the instructions I followed to get Macintosh emulation running in MAME pointed me to a CD-ROM image (with an .iso extension) that loads just fine in MAME (and Basilisk II) but isn't recognized by Mini vMac.
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adespoton
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Re: CD-ROM Images for MAME

Post by adespoton »

Interesting; I haven't checked out Richard Bannister's site lately. Considering that post is by Richard Belmont, that's pretty much the de-facto instructions for Mac OS inside MAME, as nobody knows more than he does about how it works.

Might be worth asking Richard Belmont for tips on Bannister's forum.

[edit] you prompted me to log in there and use the shoutbox. We'll see if it gets results :)
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Re: CD-ROM Images for MAME

Post by Arbee »

Hi!

First up, MAME 0.232 can use both hard disks and CD-ROMs that haven't first been converted to .CHD. For CD-ROM either bin/cue or iso is fine.

Secondly, we have some Mac-specific usage documentation on the wiki at: https://wiki.mamedev.org/index.php/Driver:Mac_68K

There have been reports of issues with inserting CD-ROMs after Finder is running causing issues; in general they work if you mount them at startup, and they can work when hot-inserted depending on the System version.

I have run Myst, because that's what you do when you get CD-ROM support, right?

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Keith Palmer
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Re: CD-ROM Images for MAME

Post by Keith Palmer »

The .iso file I tried to make was made from my own old Myst disc, which only increases my puzzlement about what I'm not doing that would have its icon appear on the Desktop in MAME. (I have tried starting the emulator with its file name after the -cdrom option on the Terminal command line.) Still, it's encouraging to hear that someone else has managed it. I suppose I should keep trying with different disc images.
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Re: CD-ROM Images for MAME

Post by adespoton »

Keith Palmer wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 10:35 pm The .iso file I tried to make was made from my own old Myst disc, which only increases my puzzlement about what I'm not doing that would have its icon appear on the Desktop in MAME. (I have tried starting the emulator with its file name after the -cdrom option on the Terminal command line.) Still, it's encouraging to hear that someone else has managed it. I suppose I should keep trying with different disc images.
Can you outline the exact steps you used to image and mount the Myst disc? Arbee is one of the MAME devs, so if you can identify exactly what you did that led to your situation, it could result in a knowledgeable fix to your process, or a fix inside MAME.
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Re: CD-ROM Images for MAME

Post by Keith Palmer »

adespoton wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 11:53 pm Can you outline the exact steps you used to image and mount the Myst disc? Arbee is one of the MAME devs, so if you can identify exactly what you did that led to your situation, it could result in a knowledgeable fix to your process, or a fix inside MAME.
To start with, I'm using MAME 0.232 on macOS 11.4 (Intel). The hard disk image I made using these instructions has System 7.1 installed on it, and it can be booted in MAME with the CD image I used via the instructions to install the operating system showing up on the Desktop.

To make an image of my Myst CD, I used these instructions and an external USB DVD reader-writer (an LG model). After I'd changed my directory in Terminal to my MAME folder, my Terminal command and response was:

Code: Select all

bash-3.2$ sudo dd if=/dev/disk5s1s2 of=mysttest.iso
Password:
1072000+0 records in
1072000+0 records out
548864000 bytes transferred in 359.343955 secs (1527406 bytes/sec)
I then started MAME again with:

Code: Select all

./mame maciici -ramsize 8M -hard1 sys71.hdv -cdrom mysttest.iso
Unfortunately, the CD icon still didn't show up on the Desktop. It was listed in the "Image Information" section of the MAME interface, though.
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Re: CD-ROM Images for MAME

Post by adespoton »

If you run Mt. Anything or SCSI Probe from within 7.1, does it indicate a device in slot 5?
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Re: CD-ROM Images for MAME

Post by Keith Palmer »

I found a copy of SCSI Probe, winkled it into MAME, and discovered it reported what looks to be a CD-ROM in position 4 as I see it:
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Re: CD-ROM Images for MAME

Post by Keith Palmer »

I've done a bit more experimenting, and while I still haven't answered the questions I started with I have hit on something of a workaround. When I installed Mac OS 7.6.1 into a fresh hard disk image and tried running it in MAME, CD-ROM images I've come across will start loading on the Desktop there. The image I made using dd didn't, though. Whether I can get System 7.1 loading CD images by installing CD-ROM drivers is a question I'll have to look into; I also want to keep experimenting and seeing if I can get an emulated computer working with "thousands" and "millions" of colours.
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Re: CD-ROM Images for MAME

Post by Arbee »

You can definitely enable "thousands" and "millions" of colors in Mac models that support it in MAME. You can also have multiple video cards in machines with NuBus slots.
Keith Palmer
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Re: CD-ROM Images for MAME

Post by Keith Palmer »

I might have posted my last comment a trifle too soon; a recollection about the LC III revealed its emulation included enough VRAM to bump up to thousands of colours. I'd already tried adding a second video card to IIci emulation but had a bit of trouble there seeing anything before realizing the second monitor, devoid of a menu bar or even a Desktop pattern to start with, was all I was seeing right off. Some more web searching turned up the "-numscreens" command-line option, which at least made the boot monitor show up, but I still can't switch to the second screen; hitting fn-delete seems to have the MAME menu appear on the invisible second screen... The command line I'm trying to work with at the moment is:

Code: Select all

./mame maciici -numscreens 2 -nbc 824gc -ramsize 16M -hard1 macos761.hdv
(Some of my searching, anyway, turned up one comment that multiple screens don't work in MAME on "some Macs.")
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Re: CD-ROM Images for MAME

Post by Keith Palmer »

With a bit more examination of the MAME documentation, I sorted out how to get two windows to show up on my single actual monitor:

Code: Select all

./mame maciici -numscreens 2 -window -nomax -mouse -nbc 824gc -ramsize 16M -hard1 macos761.hdv
-nomax keeps the windows from being scaled up to where they can't be put side-by-side (on a monitor no wider than mine, anyway), and -mouse keeps the regular system pointer from going off the windows, although you have to pause the emulation (hit fn-delete, then P) before you get that regular pointer back to move the windows from where one sits right on top of the other on startup. The only small problem I've noticed is the emulation now shuts down with an error message, but otherwise I'm running out of serious difficulties to overcome.
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Re: CD-ROM Images for MAME

Post by adespoton »

Thanks for the updates, Keith! It's great to have all these issues and fixes in one location.
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